Long term, debt remains a concern for the U.S., in spite of recent progress in this regard. http://www.aei.org/publication/the-debt-is-still-a-major-threat/ Of course regular readers know I remain confident that a lot of debt could ultimately be transformed into long term growth and wealth creation.
One primary debt concern in relation to governmental healthcare obligations, is due to the current costs of chronic illness. Chronic illness costs are more substantial than those associated with end of life care. http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2015/06/focusing-on-high-cost-patients.html
Local coordination for chronic illness - via knowledge use systems - could also help to relieve the burden of government debt.
"Off-grid" living is sometimes illegal, and could remain so until new communities seek combined gains in energy use with new infrastructure patterns. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/03/09/florida-makes-off-grid-living-illegal-mandates-all-homes-must-be-connected-to-an-electricity-grid/ New forms of internal corporate infrastructure would benefit from local energy use alternatives.
Present day energy companies don't benefit from these kinds of changes, hence both they and governments suffer from a "first mover" problem. It's not easy to alter default settings, when state government and externally structured corporate special interests depend on one another to override both free market and consumer alternatives. However, for knowledge and services formation to be possible through less sticky income levels, local equilibrium needs infrastructure innovation and adjustment, as well.
Greece: the numbers - http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/07/03/greeces-debt-the-numbers/
A chip that mimics human organs is the design of the year.
Peter Boettke reflects on Greece: http://www.coordinationproblem.org/2015/07/greece-and-wrestling-with-the-fiscal-commons.html
My thoughts on reading this post https://growthecon.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/the-glacial-speed-of-institutional-change/ from Dietz Vollrath:
Blazing the (most recent) path is what took so long. As to following the basic path? It happened fairly quickly, for nations which were able to do so in recent decades. However, much now depends on blazing a new path for growth - one which could take decades to fully develop - provided that growth is not reversed, instead.
A figure which would likely destroy lots of economic complexity in a hurry: Could you live on $64 a day if Greece's crisis happened here?
Texas and a few other states certainly could have done without the decline in nominal income...only consider the graphs: http://www.voxeu.org/article/surprising-decline-us-petroleum-consumption
When coordination goes wrong (The Economist) Learning the Lessons of Stagnation
A positive take on the future: Five New Technologies and One Very Old One That Will Save The World
She acknowledges the fact that services are a consequence of prosperity, and the tradable service sector: http://www.voxeu.org/article/service-labour-market-engine-growth-and-inequality
Due to slower than expected growth: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/07/16/why-the-white-house-no-longer-projects-a-decline-in-debt/?mod=WSJ_EC_RT_Blog
"In the projections, which stretched from 2015 to 2020, the staff did not expect inflation to ever reach the Fed's 2.0 percent target." http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/usa-fed-forecast-idINKCN0PY1WB20150724
"The last time homeownership levels were this low, LBJ was president." U.S. Homeownership Drops To Its Lowest Level Since 1967
(WSJ) Grand Central: What if the Output Gap is Global?
Tim Worstall is concerned about social mobility in the UK. A difficult problem but we'd really better try and find a solution
"New analysis of U.S. Census data by the Pew Research Center reveals that 18- to 34-year olds are less likely to be living on their own today than they were during the Great Recession." (Time) Even More Millennials Are Living At Home
Tonight is one of those occasional "blue moon" events which - if I understand correctly - means a better "alignment" is on the way. I certainly hope so, because this past week it has felt as though my entire jaw is not correctly aligned with the rest of my skull! Sometimes pain management can only do so much good. At any rate, here's wishing better "alignment" in the days ahead for all my readers.
No comments:
Post a Comment